In attempting to control the pH in our body, the first effort should be to control what we eat. Here I can speak from experience, having paid little attention to my diet for many years, eating what, when, and where the desire struck. Very few of us have a perfect diet, and many of us are far from that goal. Yet a good diet is one of the most essential components of a good, or very good life state. So how can we improve our diets?

There are a lot of different approaches to correcting and improving what we eat and when. The following will be a series of suggestions which may help even for those, who like me, do not have highly developed will power. One possible way to help adjust your pH, as well as improve your overall nutritional status is the regular consumption of green smoothies, if they are properly constituted.

Green Smoothie

The green smoothie should consist of:

• 1. Low fat milk (1/2 cup); (if you are, or may be lactose intolerant, substitute water, orange juice (high fiber orange juice is even better) or pure grape juice);
• 2. Organic spinach (2 oz); (the baby spinach is very good because of its compliment of mineral elements, fiber, chlorophyll and other nutrients, but one can use any green leafy vegetable for this purpose);
• 3. Plain yogurt (2 oz.); a live culture yogurt is preferred, and one may choose to use a flavored yogurt for variety.
• 4. Orange juice concentrate (2 oz.); if you substituted orange juice, or grape juice for the milk skip this one;
• 5. As desired add a few ice cubes to make the solution cold or even a slushy mix.
• 6. Blend all the above ingredients in a high speed blender until a smooth consistency is achieved.

I would suggest that you double the recipe above each time you make a smoothie and drink 1/2 of it as a breakfast substitute, and the other 1/2 as an early supper. Make lunch your major meal and try to avoid anything other than pure water within 4 hours of retiring. You will find in most cases, a little Yoga or other physical exercise just before retiring will help you rest well.

There is a broad range of materials that can be substituted or added to your smoothie. In fact, let me suggest that you reward yourself once in a while (maybe once per week if you persist) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream added to your smoothie, or some other addition which rewards but does not negate the benefits.

Variations on the Green Smoothie

For a change you can substitute pure grape juice for the orange juice, orange concentrate, or milk. Avoid using juice cocktail mixes as these are often high in sugar content and usually lower in the fiber, anti-oxidant, and other nutritional factors. Also you may find that the addition of 2 to 4 ounces of carrots, celery, or an apple, may provide a welcome variation. These additions will maintain or even increase the nutritional value of your smoothie. Another ingredient that you might consider adding to your smoothie is 1 or 2 ounces of no sugar added dried tart cherries, or one ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate. (See: Fibromyalgia Foods You Should Eat)

Another easy way to begin changing your pH is to chew some calcium carbonate based anti-acids (Tums) and to take a calcium carbonate based calcium supplement (1000 mg once or twice a day). For this purpose avoid the aluminum hydroxide based anti-acids and calcium citrate formulations.

I would suggest that you obtain some pH test paper or strips from a health food store and check your oral and urine pH once in a while. Test before you drink your smoothies for the day. If you do not wish to do the testing, try it for a few days and see if you don’t feel better. You will probably find that in addition to feeling better, you will lose a little weight if you need to, and your food bill will be reduced if you use the smoothie as a meal replacement.

About 6 months ago, my daughter, who suffers from fibromyalgia, commented on one of her bad days that it felt that her skin was on fire, or like it was being eaten by acid. Because of my background in horticulture, bio-chemistry, botany and plant physiology that comment held particular interest. I gave my daughter a couple of broad range pH sticks, one to test her oral pH and one to test her urine pH. Those particular pH sticks had a range of 5.5 to 8.5 and I expected that her pH should be between 6.8 and 7.2. Both of those initial tests indicated that her pH was 5.5 or lower. Since those particular pH sticks were old, we obtained some pH strips from the health food store with a range of 6.0 to 8.0, repeated the tests and found the pH was 6.0 or lower.

Being a Plant Doctor (PhD in Horticulture), I suspected a pH that low was not a good thing so we had our daughter chew some calcium carbonate based anti-acids (Tums). Within a few minutes she reported that her skin was not nearly as sensitive and felt much better though was still bothersome. I then suggested that she try an old home remedy (not recommended) and drink a teaspoon of Arm and Hammer baking soda dissolved in 8 ounces of warm water which she did. This latter treatment was even more effective in reducing the fibromyalgia skin discomfort, and lessened the muscle pain. When she tested her pH after this treatment she found that it was between 6.5 and 7.5. As expected the change in the oral pH occurred immediately and lasted for 2 or 3 days, while the urine pH was slower to respond and lasted only about 3 days.

There followed a period when frequent consumption of the calcium carbonate based anti-acids along with an occasional dose of sodium bicarbonate were fairly effective in maintaining her pH and limiting her skin discomfort but the effect was not as great as desired, and decreased over the months. Sodium Bicarbonate was quite effective, but we were concerned about long term adverse effects of this material so we explored other ways to maintain a favorable pH.

Diet to Control pH

Generally, green leafy vegetables, vegetables like carrots and celery and some fruits like banana have a pH in the upper 6 and lower 7 range. These plant materials contain buffer systems that tend to maintain their internal pH and when the vegetables are consumed, those buffer systems tend to help maintain our pH at a favorable level. Some fruits such as apples and oranges, while containing some organic acids tend to help maintain a healthy pH because of fiber and other chemical constituents.

We began to explore the use of “Green Smoothies” as a means of maintaining my daughter’s pH. We can report that it worked, in a matter of days and is still having the desired effect. She rated her skin sensitivity, before she began trying to control her pH, at 10 on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being absent and 10 being so sensitive her clothing caused significant pain when it touched her skin. She now rates her skin sensitivity at 1 or 2 depending on the day.

The Recipe: Daily, in a good high speed blender she places 1 cup of low fat milk, 2-3 ounces of unflavored yogurt, 4 ounces of orange juice concentrate and 2 or 3 ounces of spinach or spring salad mix. To this she adds 4 to 6 ice cubes and blends everything until it is at an even consistency. This makes approximately 2 glasses of green smoothie, one of which is consumed in the morning and one of which is stored in the refrigerator and consumed in the late afternoon.

In humans the pH of the system is important for all the same reasons it is important in Plants, and also, humans have a highly developed nervous system and brain which interacts on many levels, and in many ways with the chemical processes of life. For example, in plants the hormonal presence and levels are dictated by the plants genetics interacting with the environment and stage of growth to bring about development and control of the life cycle in a fairly narrowly prescribed pattern.

In humans, on the other hand, stress, diet, sex, emotional stimuli and environment and other factors, interact with the genetics, and each other, to make a much more complex system. For example, if we are under stress, mental or physical, that will almost always interact with one or more of our systems to bring about a change in our life state. Worry may bring about a release of stomach acid which results in acid indigestion, which may then make us feel ill at ease and cause us to wonder about our state of health, which may stimulate an undesired emotional state, which may influence eating or sexual habits, which bring about other interactions. It is a very complex, multi-dimensional, interactive system.

The pH in our body may influence the state, function and rate of almost any of the enzyme systems that are essential to our life (see: Fibromylgia(2): Why is pH so Important to Life in Plants?). While the pH in different organs in our body may vary, the wrong pH in the wrong place may be highly destructive. For example, the pH in the stomach is usually quite low because of its role in digestion of our food. The lining of the stomach is adapted to produce and withstand the acid that plays that important role in our well being. That same pH or acid in the throat may damage the tissue and cause severe consequences as in acid reflux disorder.

The pH in our lower digestive system is generally near neutral if we are healthy. This allows the digestive enzymes, and digestive biological agents to persist and catalyze the reactions which are so important to the proper nutrient uptake. If the pH in that portion of the digestive track, is too low, we may experience gas, bloating, colitis, or other major inflammatory and/or digestive disorders. Those disorders may adversely affect other systems because of improper nutrition, or the release of unwanted compounds, or stimuli into the blood stream, the nervous system and/or the rest of the body.

Life can be difficult. There are many things that we can not control, but there are some that we can, and those we can, we should, if we want the highest possible quality of life.

One of the factors that can make our bodies function more smoothly, which in turn may eliminate or decrease some of the negative factors in our lives is our diet, and through our diet, our pH. This may be likened to a tune up for a car. Let’s tune up our bodies. The process generally consists of a number of steps. May I suggest that the first step should be our pH, and if we can make some additional improvements in the life state as we do so, that will be wonderful.